Senta Berger

Senta Berger
Berger at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.
Born	13 May 1941 (1941-05-13) Vienna, Austria
Occupation	Actor, producer, author
Years active	1955-present
Spouse	Michael Verhoeven
Children	Luca Verhoeven Simon Verhoeven

Senta Berger (born 13 May 1941) is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.

Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three Bambi Awards, two Romys, an Adolf Grimme Award, both a Deutscher and a Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, and a Goldene Kamera.

Berger married director and producer Michael Verhoeven in 1966. They are the parents of actors Simon and Luca Verhoeven.

Early life

Berger is the daughter of Therese Jany, a teacher, and Josef Berger, a musician. She first appeared on stage at the age of four, when her father accompanied her singing on the piano. At the age of five she started ballet lessons.

Berger also took private acting lessons. In 1957, she won her first small role in one of the final films directed by Austrian auteur Willi Forst. She applied for the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a famous acting school in Vienna, and was accepted, but she left shortly afterwards after accepting a film role without permission. In 1958, she became the youngest member of the Josefstadt Theatre in Vienna.

Career

Bernhard Wicki and Arthur Brauner produced the film The Good Soldier Schweijk with Berger and the German actor Heinz Rühmann. Brauner used Berger in several films, but she soon tired of musicals. In 1962, she went to Hollywood and worked with stars such as Charlton Heston, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Richard Widmark, John Wayne, and Yul Brynner. She returned to Germany to accept an offer for a role in a series, which would have brought an obligation of several years.

In 1963, Berger met Michael Verhoeven, son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch Paul Verhoeven). They started their own film production company in 1965. In 1966, Senta and Michael married. In 1970, she starred for the first time in a film produced by her own company and directed by her husband. Other internationally successful films made by the duo included, amongst others, Die weiße Rose, The Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen) and Mutters Courage. Berger continued to develop her European career in France and Italy.

In 1966, Berger co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the movie Cast a Giant Shadow. Berger played the role of Magda, a soldier in the Israeli army during the Israeli War of Independence (1948). She played the role of a German schoolteacher involved in neo-Nazi activity opposite Max von Sydow and George Segal in The Quiller Memorandum, also released in 1966.

In 1967, Berger acted in the pilot movie for the Robert Wagner television series It Takes a Thief, which aired on American television network ABC on January 9, 1968. She reprised her role in the series in October 1969, in an episode in which her character was killed off.

In 1977, she was head of the jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival. 21 years later, she was part of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

Following the birth of her two sons (including the actor-director Simon Verhoeven), Berger returned to theatre work. She played at the Burgtheater in Vienna, at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg and at the Schillertheater in Berlin. Between 1974 and 1982, she played the “Buhlschaft” in the play Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival with Curd Jürgens and Maximilian Schell. She also acted alongside Schell and James Coburn in a supporting role in the acclaimed war film Cross of Iron (1977). In 1985–86, Berger started a comeback in front of German-speaking audiences in the TV serial Kir Royal. Further serial hits followed, like The Fast Gerti, where she played a taxi driver.

In the same year, she also started a career as a singer of Chansons. 2005 saw her in the film, Einmal so wie ich will, as a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage who finds love on holiday, but turns her back on the relationship.

Since February 2003, Berger has been president of the German Film Academy, which seeks to advance the new generation of actors and actresses in Germany and Europe. The Academy will decide the assignment of the German Film Awards in the future.

Memoirs

In the spring of 2006, Berger's autobiography was published in Germany: Ich habe ja gewußt, daß ich fliegen kann ("I Knew That I Could Fly"). Among her memories of Hollywood are a less-than-subtle attempt by Darryl Zanuck to get her on his casting couch, and being called "You German pig" on her first day on the set of Major Dundee by a gaffer whose wife had lost her family in Auschwitz.

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1959	The Journey	Serving Girl in Black Scarf
1961	The Secret Ways	Elsa
1961	The Miracle of Father Malachia	Yvonne Krüger
1963	The Victors	Trudi
1964	The Spy with My Face	Serena
1964	See How They Run (1964 film)	Orlando Miller
1965	Major Dundee	Teresa Santiago
1965	The Glory Guys	Lou Woddard
1966	Cast a Giant Shadow	Magda Simon
1966	Our Man in Marrakesh	Kyra Stanovy
1966	The Quiller Memorandum	Inge Lindt
1967	The Ambushers	Francesca Madeiros
1969	De Sade	Anne de Montreuil
1970	When Women Had Tails	Filli
1973	Bisturi la mafia bianca	Suor Maria
1973	The Scarlet Letter	Hester Prynne
1977	Cross of Iron	Eva
1990	Tre colonne in cronaca	La contessa Odessa Bonaveri
1998	Bin ich schön?	Unna
2009	Ob ihr wollt oder nicht!	Dorothea
2010	Satte Farben vor Schwarz	Anita

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	The Poppy Is Also a Flower	Maxine
1990	La belle Anglaise		(TV series, 1 episode)
1992	Sie und Er	Charlotte
1992	Lilli Lottofee	Lilli
1994	Gefangene Liebe
1994-96	Ärzte	Dr. Margarethe Martin	(TV series, 8 episodes)
1995	Kommissar Rex	Karla Wilke	(TV series, 1 episode)
1996	Mein Sohn ist kein Mörder!	Sarah Renzi
1997	Kap der Rache	Lilian
1997	Lamorte	Susa
1997	Die Nacht der Nächte	Teresa
1998	Mammamia	Clara
1999	Liebe und weitere Katastrophen	Franziska Ackermann
1999	Rosamunde Pilcher - Das große Erbe	Alex Gower
1999	Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders	Marie Mechlenburg
2000	Zimmer mit Frühstück	Elisabeth
2000	Trennungsfieber	Dr. Carla Severin-Bauer
2000	Scharf aufs Leben	Solveigh Kronberg
2000	Probieren Sie's mit einem Jüngeren	Anna
2002	Bis dass dein Tod uns scheidet	Edith Mosbach
2004	Die Konferenz	Cornelia Cordes
2005	Einmal so wie ich will	Emma Bauer
2005	Emilia - Die zweite Chance	Dr. Emilia Seiler
2005	Emilia - Familienbande	Dr. Emilia Seiler
2006	Nette Nachbarn küsst man nicht	Helga Forstmann
2008	Rosamunde Pilcher - Vier Jahreszeiten	Julia Combe	(TV mini-series, 4 episodes)
2009	Schlaflos	Carla Sagmeister
2009	Frau Bähm sagt Nein	Rita Böhm
2009	Mama kommt!	Luise Fischer
2010	Liebe am Fjord	Pernille	(TV series, 1 episode)

External links

• Senta Berger at the Internet Movie Database
• Senta Berger-links (Yahoo group)
• Interview in the FAZ newspaper on her autobiography (in German)